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Grace slowly opened his eyes taking in the ‘morning light.’ It was artificial but it felt pretty real. His house was the perfect temperature, and his bed was so comfortable. But he has to get out of bed. Today was a big day!
A while back when he was still recovering from starvation Rocky and him would talk about all they were going to do when he got better. Grace would talk about fun human activities and Rocky brought up fun Eridian activities. He was so excited to try everything. But the first order of business was something he demanded they did first. A beach day!
Hey he didn’t have them build him a house on the beach for him not to use it. He intended to use his beach.
Grace stretches in bed and pulls himself out of bed. He puts on his glasses and heads to the bathroom. He freshens up and heads out to finish getting ready. He prepares what he pretends is a delicious nutritional shake. They tasted awful but you try explaining taste to a bunch of aliens who have no sense of taste. He’ll have to try again sometime but right now they are too focused on getting him the right nutrients. He would kill for some chocolate.
Grace walks outside to his porch to finish his shake. His house sat on top of a hill and overlooked his beach. His dome was beautiful. The cliffs were like something out of a tropical paradise. They also perfected the sand. It was so soft. It still got everywhere but that’s just part of the beach experience. Oh, and don’t forget the ocean! It’s literally the most important part. They Eridian scientists managed to make the perfect waves. They were always going. Grace loved to hear the crashing of waves. They were calmer at night but still going. The water was so clear and cold but not too cold. It was perfect. A home built just for him. He will be forever grateful for the Eridians who did this for him.
He breathed in the ocean air. It…well it didn’t smell just like the ocean but once again try explaining smell to aliens that don’t have a sense of smell. It didn’t smell bad though so it will be ok.
He went back inside to finish getting ready for their beach day. He doesn’t have a swimsuit, so he opted to just wear his underwear. It’s not like his alien friends are going to judge him. He throws on his cardigan for cover. He will admit this is a strange outfit, but he has limited options. He folds his quilt to take with him and grabs the towel they managed to make him. That’s really all the beachy things he can think of. He might have to ask Rocky if they can build anything else for him. But this will suffice for their first beach day.
Grace gathers all his things and heads down to his beach. He can see Adrian and Rocky already there. He hurries over to them.
“Rocky, Good morning!” He runs up to his friend smiling.
“Good morning, friend Grace!” Rocky chimes excitedly. He’s always so excited to learn more about humans and in turn his human friend.
“Are you ready for our beach day!” Grace sets his stuff down and holds his hand out for a fist bump that Rocky quickly reciprocates. Grace turns to Adrian and holds out his fist. Adrian hesitantly brought their claws to meet Grace's hand. They were still getting used to their partner's strange alien friend.
“Excite excite excite” Rocky trilled happily.
Grace grabs his quilt and lays it on the sand. He takes off his cardigan and folds it and puts it on top of his towel. He lays down with a sigh.
Rocky watches as Grace just lays there.
“Is something supposed to happen question” Adrian chimes
“I do not know” Rocky admits, confused.
“It’s called relaxing. It’s like sleeping without sleeping. A lot of humans love to do it.” Grace speaks up after hearing their confusion.
Rocky moves next to Grace and lays down. Adrian follows and lays on the other side of Grace.
“Rocky does not see the point.” Rocky admits after a minute.
“It’s not for everyone” Grace smiles towards Rocky. “But you have to admit it’s relaxing.”
“What mean question”
“It means it reduces your stress”
“Rocky understand” Rocky always tried to encourage Grace. He didn’t want Grace to be sad. He knew being on an alien planet would be hard for him.
“It’s alright if it’s not for you. That’s not the only thing people do at the beach.” Grace figured they might not enjoy this, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen an Eridian relax like this before. Especially not Rocky. Sometimes he thinks Rocky might also have ADHD. Maybe that's why they get along so well.
“A lot of people play in the sand!” Grace excitedly got up and walked away from his quilt. Rocky chimes a questioning note.
“Well usually you would bring tools with you to build sandcastles…they're like models of grand human homes made out of sand.” Grace kneels down in the sand and Rocky follows. Adrian decides to observe from the quilt. He liked watching their mate play with his human friend.
“Ok so you gather a bunch of sand.” Grace tries to pile the sand up but it’s not really taking shape.
“Wait one second” He runs closer to the water and grabs some wet sand and brings it back.
“This should help the structural integrity.” After a while of fussing with it… it was probably the worst sandcastle he has ever built. But you could see the basic idea.
“This what human house look like question” Rocky chimes in a joking tone.
“No, they don’t” Grace laughs and Rocky trills with him
“Rocky build better sand human house” Rocky immediately gets to work.
“Awesome! I’m going to rinse off in the ocean real quick I’ll be right back.” Grace stands up and makes his way to the ocean. He’s happy he found something Rocky liked. He was worried Rocky would hate their beach day. It’s not like Rocky would ever tell him that.
He steps into the water. Man, he really got sand everywhere. He walks further in. When was the last time he swam? He remembers going to the beach with his family all the time. He looks back at Rocky and Adrian and smiles. Guess he still goes to the beach with his family. He kneels down into the water. He wonders if Eridians can swim.
“GRACE what doing” Grace hears Rocky’s panic trill. He turns to see him and Adrian at the edge of the water. He’s gotten to understand Eridian body language and they looked… worried? He wasn’t too far out.
“Don’t worry I can swim!” Grace yells back waving at them.
“What word mean question” Adrian questions as Rocky panics and paces around the edge.
“Grace come back now” Rocky trills
Grace was confused for a second but realized Eridian must not be able to swim. He should probably show them before Rocky hurts himself. But right when he was about to shout back a large wave crashed into him. He was fine. It didn’t even knock him over fully, but he did go under water for a little bit.
“GRACE NOOO” Rocky trilled loudly. He should have paid more attention. Why did he let Grace go out so far? He probably has water in his lungs now. Humans were so fragile this was probably going to make him sick, and he was just getting better too.
“Do not panic, love, Adrian will go get medical team.” Adrian was about to hurry off.
“Wait!” They both pause. “I’m okay! Swim: it means to move in water. Humans can float!”
Grace lifted his legs and started to float. He looks back at Rocky and Adrian to see them just standing there.
“Grace still come back please.” Rocky yelled out to Grace.
“Ok ok I promise I’m fine.” Grace goes back to shore. As soon as he is close enough Rocky is all over him. Adrian is close behind him.
“Grace breathing ok question, water get inside holes question.” Grace knelt down and let Rocky’s claws fuss over him.
“It’s ok Rock. Humans can hold their breath.”
“Why human do that question” Rocky chimes in with a worried and confused tone.
“Well, the Earth is 71% water, so it makes sense for most animals to be able to survive in water at least for short periods of time. Also, many animals hold their breath to hide and hunt. They use it for stealth! That way you can hide from threats or sneak up on prey.” Grace admits he slipped into teacher mode a little bit, but he loves explaining science.
“So, Grace okay question” Rocky sits close to him, his body against his leg as Grace sits chis cross.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Sorry I scared you.” Grace put his hand on Rocky to reassure him. Rocky hums for a moment calming down.
“Hey, it seems you like relaxing on the beach after all!” Grace smiles and laughs.
“Grace stop talking”
“Yeah, fair enough”
Adrian sat right behind them. Grace leaned against them. He could tell they were tense, so he gave them a moment. But to be honest he found just sitting on the beach boring.
"Sooo can I go back into the water?"
"No" Both Rocky and Adrian chimed.
So maybe the rest of this beach day can be on the beach.